


Between The Lines

by Disincanto294



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:14:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26631214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Disincanto294/pseuds/Disincanto294
Summary: "Good night." said the small piece of parkment which he had found inside the pocket of his dark frock coat. The elegant handwriting was familiar and he could have recognised it among hundreds.Hermione Granger's.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Severus Snape
Comments: 13
Kudos: 119





	Between The Lines

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Between The Lines](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/689812) by Disincanto294. 



> This one-shot was written for Prompt Week being held by FB Group "The Severus Snape & Hermione Granger Shipping Fan Group".
> 
> It was originally written in Italian, my mother tongue, so be aware that you are bound to find mistakes!

**Between The Lines**

This one-shot was written for Prompt Week being held by FB Group "The Severus Snape & Hermione Granger Shipping Fan Group".

** Prompt 2: Good night, Professor Snape. **

** With thumb and forefinger, he pulled a neatly folded scrap of parchment from his pocket and turned it over in his hands glaring at the missive through narrowed eyes as though he expected it to combust. After several moments he was satisfied the note was not hexed, or charmed, or full of Ichabod's Itching Powder so he unfolded it. **

** "Good night" was all it said. The hand was firm, precise and maddeningly familiar. He slipped the piece of parchment back into his pocket, unsure if he was unsettled by Granger's note, or by the fact she had gotten close enough to him to place it in his pocket without his notice. **

****




He had found the first note one night, carefully folded in on itself and left under the door of his office, after returning from patrolling the corridors. The second was delivered by one of Hogwarts' domestic elves, one night when dreams had turned into nightmares. The third piece of paper had arrived flying across the Great Hall, one evening in front of all the students and the teachers who were eating their dinners. The note, folded like an origami to represent a small bird, had been expertly enchanted.

The last one, the fourth, he had found it in the pocket of his black frock coat. It had started to vibrate just a moment before, around 7 p.m., when he had been walking at a lazy but never hesitant pace through the gardens that formed the huge courtyard around the Castle.

In each of them a simple sentence, always the same. "Good night," they simply said.

The handwriting was familiar, and it really took just a moment to figure out who could be so bold and at the same time reckless - _Gryffindors!_ \- to send him good night messages. Only the thought of doing such a thing was absurd. He was Severus Snape, the bastard Potions Professor, the terrible former Death Eater. However, the author of such a madness was, and Severus was perfectly aware of it, all but a coward. He had seen that stupid girl, which stupid she really was not, grow up and mature into a loyal friend and valiant warrior. He had seen her use her intelligence and magic skills and had seen her, at the end of that war that had begun when she was not even born, triumph. In spite of everything.

The war had changed her, as had changed everyone. And everything.

That year, to cross the majestic gates of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had been a shadow of the exuberant little girl who, with her untamable hair and perpetually raised hand in the air, had tormented his existence for years. A young witch with a veil of sadness in her eyes, and an infinitely more mature magic around her, had taken part in her lessons in dejected silence without ever intervening except when directly challenged. With lines of suffering to dig her youthful face, she had repeatedly met his deep gaze and smiled at him.

She had smiled at him. And no one, or hardly anyone, had ever been brave enough to do so.

But she had done more, much more. "Good night," she had written, not once but four times. _So brave!_

As had happened with the other missives, he had turned the leaflet in his hands and with his wand he had checked that it didn’t bear any curse, spell or that contained Ichabod's Itching Powder. He had glanced at the small piece of paper before opening it and reading its content.

He wasn't sure if he was more troubled by the note itself or the fact that Granger had managed to get so close to him that she could put it in his pocket without him noticing.

He continued to walk aimlessly through the gardens of the Castle, lost in his thoughts. The sun had fallen a while before and the moon had risen high into the sky, casting shadows wherever it came.

Severus had to admit that the girl had astonished him. She had changed so much, and without her incessant chatter and perpetually raised hand in the air, she could also be considered of good company. She also had many flaws, but she certainly was less dull and annoying now than before the war. The fact that the other two members of the Golden Trio were no longer in school was also a plus point. Not that he would ever tell her, just as he would always continue to scratch nasty comments on her Potions essays.

He wasn't even entirely sure why Granger was behaving like that, or rather he had no idea at all. It definitely had to be some idiotic game perpetuated at his own expense, maybe just conceived by the brilliant mind of Harry Potter.

He didn’t immediately realize the slim figure in the dim light sitting on the grass by the Black Lake, but when he did he had no doubt who she was. He could have recognized that mane between hundreds. He immediately walked towards her at a quick pace, heedless that he might as well frighten her ambushing her like that.

"Well well, who do we have here?" the Professor asked in a serious tone as soon as he found himself in front of the girl.

Hermione Granger stood motionless and silent for a few seconds, then turned softly to him and a small smile, which illuminated her eyes, grazed her face. Her face shone in the moonlight, freckles even more evident on her nose and cheeks, a pleasant contrast to the darkness that hurled deep around them.

"Professor..." she greeted him with a slight nod before returning to look at the dark surface of the water before her.

"The curfew has been in effect for a while now, Granger," Severus said with a grin printed on his face. "I find myself forced to deduct points from your House. What a pity! Ah, fifty points from Gryffindor."

The satisfaction in his tone of voice was palpable, but his student didn’t seem to be bothered by it. Again, she turned to look at him, and with one hand she slowly hit her hand on the grass beside her, beckoning him to sit down next to her. Severus was incredulous.

"It doesn't matter, Professor," she said, smiling again. "Why don't you sit here next to me for a moment? Listen, there's a nice silence around here..."

Severus looked at her crookedly for a moment, unsure about what to do. Granger was neither tipsy nor under the effect of drugs, yet in that instant she looked more like her strange, misunderstood yet brilliant friend, Luna Lovegood than herself. The desire to truly sit next to her, and abandon her unapproachable man's facade for a few seconds, passed distractedly through his mind but he drove it away immediately.

"C’mon, off to bed," he said, waving his hand in the direction of the castle, but his student did not move from her position on the grass, her legs stretched out in front of her and her arms behind her to support the weight.

That pretty smile kept playing on her lips - _cheeky!_ \- and Severus wanted nothing more than to get it off her, just for the sake of seeing her get angry. At that moment, a rather funny thought occupied his head and an evil grin, that one all his students knew never brought anything good, appeared on his face. In an instant his thin, elegantly decorated black wand appeared in his hand, and with a nonverbal spell Hermione Granger found herself suspended by air, legs and arms struggling against the sudden absence of soil.

"Hey!" exclaimed Hermione visibly irritated, waving her arms. "Put me down right away!" she threatened looking at him. "Immediately!"

For a moment Severus seemed to have gone back in the years, to when the members of the Golden Trio were only little snotty brats but Hermione Granger, ever the Know-it-All spent time giving her friends orders left and right.

"If levitating you to your dorm is the only way to send you to your room, Granger..." he threatened her in return waving a little more his wand and consequently causing the girl to move in the air.

He had been convinced that by doing so she would be deeply annoyed and would agree to follow him without making any further fuss, but Hermione surprised him once more. After the initial moment of panic, she uttered an amused little cry before beginning to laugh out loud.

The scowl on Severus's face sharpened but at the same time a slight distracted smile touched his lips. Years had passed since the last time he had made a woman laugh, and that sudden sound so foreign to his ears was pleasant. The hilarity of the scene was perfectly reflected in the witch's irises, even brighter than usual, and in that carefree contentment showed by the two dimples on her cheeks. Without thinking about why he was doing it, Severus waved his wand one last time, putting the Gryffindor back on the ground. She sat down once more and, unexpectedly for both, he followed her. _I’ve gone soft!_

"Thank you," she said, looking straight into his eyes. His answer was a simple nod and then he looked away, suddenly embarrassed. "I guess you figured it out right away..." she said after several minutes of silence, her cheeks slightly red.

"What? That it was you who were sending me those notes?" asked Severus dryly, staring at her with his magnetic gaze. "Obviously."

"After all the extra pages I've submitted to you over the years..."

"Unforgettable..." muttered to himself observing the dark surface of Black Lake rippling just in the distance.

"You'll be wondering why - "

"Surely it has something to do with your usual Gryffindor sentimentality."

Hermione blushed again and Severus found himself watching her closely, his interest roused again. In those few minutes since he had been with her out there, he had seen so many different emotions appear on her face that he wondered if it was indeed possible to switch from one feeling to another and another so frequently. And he also realized that, since the school has reopened, it was the first time he'd seen her show so many.

"I wanted to thank you for what you did for us... for me," she said softly, turning her head to one side and meeting his gaze. Severus tried to respond, but she interrupted him by raising her hand for a moment, before resting it again on the ground, a bundle of grass closer to his than before. "But I know it is not gratitude what you want. If it were the case, you would have accepted your Order of Merlin, but you didn’t."

“I don't want anything to do with the Ministry, and as much as Kingsley is a good Minister of Magic - certainly better suited to that office than several of his predecessors, they better stay away from me.”

"You know, I didn't accept it either... After everything that's happened... I just fought for my life, like everyone else."

"So?" he urged her to continue, now consumed by curiosity. "Why those cards?"

"Although I didn't approve most of the time your behaviour towards us, and even though you made me cry more than once..." she confessed and looked at him with a suddenly sad face. "I have always thought highly of you and spoke in your defense. I trusted you, and I trusted Dumbledore's faith in you. When-when he died... everything collapsed. But in retrospect, I should have understood that there was something weird about that whole story."

"It was imperative that no one knew," Severus said in an almost inaudible whisper, lost in memories of that night and all the terrible nights that followed.

"Still... still I am convinced that I should have understood. I'm the 'brightest witch of my age'. If I had figured it out, I could have done something... something for you."

Severus snorted, almost amused. _Damn Gryffindors!!_

"For example, what? Leave Potter and come and help me at Hogwarts? Stop it, Granger." the tone of derision in his voice was palpable, but Hermione didn’t shrink away.

"For example, let you know that you weren’t alone, let you know that there was a person on this earth who did not believe you were a monster," she replied proudly, turning totally to face him and biting her lower lip slowly. "I've been alone for a long time, Professor. I know what it feels like."

For a few seconds Severus watched those perfect lips get tortured, then he looked away as suddenly burned.

Those months leading up to Albus Dumbledore's death had been exhausting. Accepting to do what was required of him, and agreeing to live the consequences, had been difficult. So many times he had tried to back down, he had tried to find a different solution, but in the end the worst had happened. And he had been alone, just like he'd never been before. Those two years had been hell.

"You did it to make me feel less alone, didn’t you?" he asked her in a derisive tone, deeply troubled by the absurdity of that situation.

"Stupid, isn't it?" she commented after several moments of silence, a corner of her mouth raised up. "A full-fledged Gryffindor. And yet..." The smile widened even further, and a sly, triumphant look lit up her face. "Yet here you are and are no longer alone."

What happened soon after would have been etched in Severus's memory for a very long time.

Hermione smiled weakly one last time before getting up. Before leaving she turned to him, looking down at his Professor for the first time in her life. 

"Good night, Severus.".

The flash of surprise that shook the wizard's eyes could have illuminated even the darkest of places, as well as the warmth that suffused his heart when Hermione leaned over him and kissed his pale cheek could warm the Pole.

'Good night, Severus,' rang down his head for moments and moments.


End file.
